Reviews by Sephiroth:

Bottled in 2003: Pours with slight carbonation, body is light, hazy yellow, tiny bit of orange. The smell tempts me to jump in, but I resist it. Oranges, tangerines, peaches, malt, with all the dirty flavors that one would expect.

The flavor is awesome. Fruit flavors of oranges, peaches, and apricots. Then, the dirt, the dust, the must, and the funk. This is amazing. The mouthfeel is puckering, to say the least. As always with Cantillon lambics, drinkability depends on whether you like sour beers or not. I love em, and this is one of my favorites. (557 characters)

Big thanks to huskermike for the trade on this one - definitely one of my top "wants" and I couldn't be more excited to finally try it. Shared with Mike as part of our mini sour tasting. Fou Foune pours a cloudy and slightly rustic, sunburst shade of amber. The foamy white cap sits generously at two fingers; big and bubbly, leaving a little bit of lacing along the sides of the glass.

The intense aroma of Fou' Foune starts infiltrating my nostrils as soon as the cork gets popped. Bringing the glass close to my face just launches me into complete beer nirvana. Holy fuckin' smokes. Crazy amounts of tart, sour, and funk just completely obliterate my sense of smell for moments at a time - peaches, apricots, apple skins, light lemons... The fruits just unleash their inner tartness and send my brain into a frenzy.

Fou' Foune is so deliciously sour and tart, juicy and fresh, clean and inviting, it's unbelievable. Funk is no stranger either, with heavy amounts of barnyard, hay, and cellar funk clashing so elegantly with the fruit. Acidic all the way, with some milder vinous and vinegar notes hidden amongst the ruckus. The smell is simply mind-blowing, and it left me smelling the empty bottle, long after the night was over.

I just kept hoping that such a beautiful aroma was a promissory note for how amazing the beer was going to taste. Sometimes the aroma can build up your expectations, only to be let down once the liquid washes over your palate. So I take my first sip, and any expectations I had were just annihilated - completely blown out and blown up. If there really was a "nectar of the gods," it was Fou' Foune.

My tongue is met immediately with a gorgeous bouquet of peaches, apples, apricots, and white grapes. Fruits so fresh, ripe, juicy, and tart, you wouldn't believe it if I told you. Start to finish, the sourness lasts and keeps your saliva glands pumping, but the tartness is controlled so perfectly and elegantly as to keep the beer drinkable without turning astringent. How is this possible?

Fou Foune offers an incredible stinging of the senses, and I mean that in the best way possible. The everlasting tartness is backed up with a moderate fruity sweetness that provides a good balance and only adds to the already insane drinkability. Little hints of wood, oak, and funk just pop in and out throughout the jungle of fruity goodness. Cork, hay, barnyard, funky yeast - added in seemingly perfect amounts.

More copious amounts of oak and musty cellar funk in the finish compliment the fading tartness and fruity sweetness in the most elegant way possible. Thin-medium bodied with a surprisingly large presence for a 5% ABV lambic, crisp and sharp mouth feel with a ton of carbonation. It feels nice and drinks easily enough.

My expectations for Fou' Foune were high, and they were surpassed beyond belief. This is such a masterful beer in nearly every sense of the word. Most definitely the best sour I've had to date, and possibly the best beer I've ever had, period. Fou' Foune is a masterpiece, a work of art, and a one-of-a-kind benchmark of the style. Make it your life-goal to get your hands on Fou' Foune if you haven't already. (3,181 characters)

Review (11 months of age)- 75cl bottle from August 2012- so nearly a year old- given to me as a gift from Eduardo and shared at a whale tasting last night, 7/13/2013.. poured into a Cantillon stemmed wine glass.

Wow! This beer's nose is basically a lot of acidity along with a delicious apricot fruitiness. There is a good bit of the lambic earth funk that I've come to associate with Cantillons- same kind of smell that you get when you walk into the brewery. But this is a milder funk as the apricot is very strong here.

The beer itself pours a hazy golden-orange body that is very well carbonated, with a massive >3cm head that takes a while to recede and never fully goes away. Lacing is very nice. Just what I would expect from a good Cantillon.

When this beer finds its way into my mouth, it is just so perfectly balanced in terms of the sourness, fruitiness, acidity and funk. It all comes together to create a sweet apricot accentuated with some lemon tartness. Incredible.

Mouthfeel-wise, its more or less what Cantillons bring to the table. Medium bodied, no dryness at all in the finish, sweet but not in a sugary way. The tartness is refreshing and makes for a delicious, refershing in-between beer between Bramble Rye and Vanilla Bean Dark Lord.

This is the best Cantillon I've had and that includes the Lou Pepes.. it's just slightly above Saint Lamvinus, which is a bit unfair as both beers are different. This one brings out the apricot which is definitely strong here like the cherries in a Lou Pepe Kriek, etc. but without the apricot being overwhelmingly sweet. It is so well-balanced and easy to drink. Incredibly refreshing and flavourful. Eduardo tells me that he considers Cantillon to be bottled art. If that is the case, Fou' Foune is a true masterpiece in a bottle and Jean Van Roy is Peter Paul Rubens. This beer is definitely in my top 5 of all time.

Re-reviewed (3 months of age)Opened up another 75cl bottle from August 2013 on 11/26/2013. So 3 months old the second time around. Poured into a Hill Farmstead stemmed glass. Basically the same as the previous review (with 1 year on it), except this is definitely less acidic and the apricots come out quite a bit more, especially in the nose which is even more perfect than it was before. Phenomenal nose, one of the best smelling beers I've had. Flavour-wise, I preferred the 1-year old bottle's acidity and sourness, but I can definitely appreciate the apricots here more. And the mouthfeel is phenomenal- so well carbonated, so creamy. Reminds me of Hill Farmstead's pale ales actually. But so substantial yet drinkable and refreshing. This beer's appearance isn't as sexy and tempting as its sister beer Blabaer, but the beer is otherwise perfect in my mind.

Re-reviewed (6 months of age): 75cl bottle from August 2013, generously bought over by Dustin at our celebratory whale tasting. Cheers to good friends! Poured into a Three Floyds teku glass today, 3/22/2014. Basically, the beer looks just the same as any of the other times. Smell is very apricot-forward still, but I appreciated more tartness, horseblanket funk. Best thing is that this bought out a lot of geuze-like lemon tartness, pepperiness on top of the funk in the nose. Incredible, sweet yet complex nose. Flavour is very similar- the geuze-like characteristics stand out far more than fresh. Lemon zest, pepperiness, barnyard Cantillon funk. It reminds me so much of Armand'4 Zomer. And you throw some fresh apricot juice on top of that? This merely reinforces how much I love this beer. And mouthfeel is a bit thinner and less creamier than fresh, but still very much medium bodied and refreshing. Again, the only conclusion I'll draw from this is: this is still my favorite beer ever.

Re-re-reviewed (2 months of age): 2014 vintage. Bottled 21 August 2014. Thanks Tim! Poured into a Cantillon balloon glass 10/19/2014 for our first anniversary. Essentially, I just want to re-reconfirm that fresh Fou' Foune is delicious, and this year's Fou' Foune is not lacking in apricots. The best advice I have to anyone who's opening up a bottle soon is to serve it at cellar temperature, aerate it and let it warm up a bit- the apricots truly come out as clean, crisp stone fruits in the nose that dance along your palate as you sip it. Great mouthfeel, soft, velvety but with a nice crisp, dry and thirst-quenching finish. There is no defect to be found in this beer- it is still my favorite beer after all this time, and worthy of its status. (4,502 characters)

This was just 1 of the many personal whales slain last night. Thanks frankthetank for bringingthis puppy.

2014 bottle straight from the source.

I hate reviewing what a beer looks like, but let's just say it looked awesome.

Aroma was off the charts. Quite funky but doesn't detract or take the focus off of the apricots. I let this sit in my other glass and open up while I tasted the other beers. After about 45 minutes, I started to drink it again and it had totally changed. The funk and lacto has disappeared and all that was left was juicy apricots. Absolutely amazing!

Flavor followed suit. The first few sips were sour, funky and filled with apricot juice. After it sat, however, the sourness disappeared and all that remained was straight apricot puree.

Overall, this has been my favorite Cantillon to date. Well worth the hype and so glad I didn't have to give up any beers to finally tick it off. (913 characters)

Big bro ups to the magnificent beast that is flexabull for carting this one all the way across the pond, over my head to CA, then back to MN. I’d like to have its frequent flier miles. 750ML bottle capped & corked, split with my wife, who’s almost panting in anticipation.

The pour is pure spring sunshine in a proper Cantillon glass, with a sharknado of carbonation swirling right up the middle. The yellow fruit is still strong in the nose, though I would have guess peach instead of apricot, but whatever, with a fair amount of sharp lemon & white wine. Thoroughly enjoyable for whiffing.

Fou Foune is my kind of lambic. The fruit & sour are about 49.2% vs. 50.8%, & I can’t tell which side is which. Lovely light fruits do the bagurumba with a light acidity imparted by the wild beasties, imparting a lovely tartness on the tongue and other mouth parts. Mid-palate is that spritzy white wine again, oak on oak, lemon coming on strong. Light & summery, this is a joy on the palate, & something that I could drink for quite a long while. There simply aren’t many wild ales you can say that about.

So happy I finally had a full pour of this, after having samples at numerous tastings over the years…& I gotta say, much better fresh. Goes without saying: this is an excellent brew. (1,297 characters)

A slightly cloudy pink/orange pour with a typically small head. The nose was big on tart, sour fruitiness. Huge tang up front and tartness that hits you like a cold bucket of water. Lemony notes and very big lime bitterness along with vinegar notes that make you pucker up! The fruitiness is very toned down. A pinch of apricot but burried beneath all of the acidity and tartness. Some light earthy notes and fresh grassy layers. Nice acidity although not to the degree of the gueze for example. For me this is a great beer for a starter or even a night cap. The perfect summer beer. I absolutely loved it. (606 characters)

Sour! Apricot. Looks, smells, and tastes like an apricot. Kinda peachy too. Nice head, ample carbonation, sourness mellows as it warms and the palate becomes used to it. Spicy aromatically. Soupy and peppery. Clean. Nostrils even feel the funk. Palte burns somewhat. Lingeringly sour but it also hits the front lip. This is a serious beer. Wonderful. Served on tap during Pucker Fest at Belmont Station in Portland, OR. (419 characters)

A: Very hazy orange color with a reasonably big white head that leaves plenty of lacings.

S: The smell is really acidic with lots of tart fruit notes of lemon, apricots and some green apples. Lots of funky notes as well, mostly mud and blanket. Very intense.

T: The taste is almost unbelievably sour, really mouth-puckering. Lots of acidic fruit notes, mostly of apricots and lemon. Pleasant rustic funky notes of mud and wet hey. Notes of grass and wood. The finish is bone dry, and I really mean bone dry. The beer ends with tart notes of apricots, hints of salty aged cheese, mild grassy bitterness and lingering acidity.

M: Medium body, rather sparkling carbonation.

D: I've had this beer once before, but I was still amazed over how sour it is. By far one of the most sour beers I've tried. All in all, it's a great beer - wonderful fruity character and intense rustic flavors. (931 characters)

Taste: Smooth and gentle waves of lactic acid and acetic vinegar wash over the tastebuds. This fruited Cantillon is roughly a year old, yet still leans in favor of the sweet malts, rather than the sourness that dominates over time. The vanilla comes out a bit stronger than in the aroma, and compliments the wood-character very well. Fou Foune finishes with a bang of fresh, juicy apricot flavor that delivers on your wildest fruited-sour fantasy.

Mouthfeel: Low but prickly carbonation. The body is almost medium in character, but I'd say it's right about a low-high. The gentle carbonation allows the beers flavors to shine.

Overall: A very impressive fruit sour from Cantillon. However, since it was nearly a year old, I was not able to enjoy it fresh as the brewery highly recommends. I'm betting the fruit character is much more intense and vibrant, and I look forward to this beer being released next month. Hopefully I get another bottle, after which I will update or add on this review to reflect that. (1,438 characters)

A - Pours a hazy golden orange with two fingers of white head. Head has good retention but leaves no lacing.

S - Soft apricot with light sourness. Slightly funky.

T - Subtle apricot flesh with a funky, barnyard like flavor. There is a mild tartness that is coupled with an oak and vanilla like sweetness on the finish.

M - Medium-bodied, extremely dry, and supple. Carbonation is much more active than I expected it to be.

O - Definitely a great beer but it was a little bit of a let down for me. I thought the apricot was going to stand out a lot more then it did. Still another nice offering from Cantillon and glad I finally got to try it. (660 characters)